


A Strange Soundwave

by FujurPreux



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Transformers: Prime
Genre: Action/Adventure, Creepy, Crossover, Fire-forged Friends, Gen, Horror, Post-Canon, Wizards and robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 00:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16356830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: Post-canon for both Doctor Strange and Transformers: Prime.Not that accidentally, human doctor Stephen Strange frees Soundwave from the Phantom Zone, and now he has to help Smokescreen to fix the problem.Written for the Crossover prompt oftrope_bingo





	A Strange Soundwave

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [laurus_nobilis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/) for the beta. :3

Smokescreen stood at the entrance of the Nemesis, former Decepticon flagship turned now into an abandoned wreck, and stared at its endless and dark corridors. It had been a while since the last time he was here. It didn’t feel like that long ago, but its panels were already rusting, to the point that he could find only one entrance that wasn’t stuck. An annoying and tedious process that nevertheless had to be done.

It hadn’t been nostalgia that had brought the young Autobot there, but the alarm notifying that the motion sensors had picked up something on the inside. The outside, Smokescreen had found several times over, remained undisturbed, which reinforced his theory that this had to be caused by a malfunction of some sort. However, he was supposed to be exercising caution now in what he called his more mature phase, so he turned on the lights and stepped inside, locking the door behind him. Just in case.

He walked down the corridor, aware of how his steps echoed between the walls even when he aimed for his movements to be soft and slow. Whenever he thought his stealthiness made any progress, small things like this popped up to show him how behind he was from the likes of Bumblebee or Arcee, no matter how much he trained.

However, he didn’t have much time to dwell on that. After a few turns and twists into the ship, he saw something on the floor. A small something that, he realized in shock, was a human male.

“Primus! What the –” Smokescreen muttered, hurrying to kneel next to the organic creature, who wasn’t moving. To be honest, the Autobot would have been surprised if he had. Cybertron’s atmosphere wasn’t suitable for organic lifeforms and when was the last time the Nemesis had been in a position to pick up one? This stowaway had, perhaps, sneaked into the ship during the chaos that was its last moments on Earth. Then, unable to get out, he had suffocated after leaving the atmosphere. What a terrible fate. “I’m really sorry,” Smokescreen whispered.

On the other hand, the body falling down from the ceiling or wherever it had been must have activated the sensors. Mystery solved.

But Smokescreen couldn’t leave things like this. He had to take care of this poor creature’s remains. With care and respect, he reached out with his hand to pick him up. “Come on,” the Autobot continued. “I’ll send you back home.” He would, via spacebridge and the Autobots’ contacts on Earth. The least he could do, with how late he had been to save him. “Your family deserves to know what happened, don’t they?”

Next, Smokescreen suffered the scare of his life when the human raised his own hand and swatted Smokescreen’s away. The Autobot fell down on his tailpipe, his surprised gasp echoing all throughout the Nemesis.

“You won’t send me anywhere,” the human said. “I was just catching my breath.” He made several pauses between words to gasp, which meant he hadn’t quite caught it yet. This lead to the next pressing set of questions.

“Are you alive? How? Are you –” Smokescreen went through his memory database for the word. It had come up in occasion during movie night with Jack, Miko, and Raf, and it referred to a creature that wasn’t completely organic and… “Ah! Are you a cyborg?”

“What?” the human replied, scandalized enough to try to stand up. He made it only halfway through. In the end, he gave up, and sat down again, his back against the wall and pretending nothing had happened. After taking a deep breath, he continued in a tone that reminded Smokescreen of Ratchet. “No, I am not a cyborg. I’m one hundred percent human, thank you.”

“You’re standing on a planet with an atmosphere inhospitable for your species, you know?”

“Yes, yes. I’m well aware. If you have to know, I can breathe up here because I used a spell that encases my body in…” He stared at Smokescreen critically for a moment before carrying on with his explanation. “Let’s call it ‘a bubble’ that provides me with unlimited oxygen.”

“Oh. I see. No, wait! Spell? Like in magic?”

“Of course like in magic!” the human answered, all offended. He made a second attempt to stand up, although now taking his time, propping himself up with his hand against the wall. This time, he managed it.

Smokescreen took the chance to examine him better, with the hope of seeing that bubble. He wasn’t able too. But he did notice something else.

“You’re hurt! There’s blood on the side of your head!”

The human touched his temple. He winced but his hand came back clean. Maybe the bubble was there after all.

“You need to see a doctor, Mr…?”

“I am a doctor. Doctor Strange.”

“You’re weird, all right.”

“That’s not –” He grunted and then waved his hand. “Just forget about it. Where is my cape?”

“I don’t know.” Smokescreen began to look around for the thing. “What does it look like?”

“It’s red, it flies, and it generally moves on its own.”

“Is it also magic?”

“What else could it be?”

“Dunno. Advanced tech?”

The doctor guy rolled his eyes so hard Smokescreen thought he’d hurt himself further.

“Whatever,” the Autobot continued. Listen, uh, doctor, I still don’t know how you got here, but I’ll help you find your magic cape and then I’ll send you back to Earth on a spacebridge. You can’t be here.”

“It’s all right. I just need my cape and a handful of Energon. Then I’ll send myself back home. There’s no need for you to get involved any further.”

Smokescreen frowned. He was confused, but not enough to not find this suspicious. “What do you want Energon for? Another spell?”

“Well, yes. We need the solidified blood of a non-organic deity, and this was the best we could think of. A handful will be enough.”

“Who’s we?”

“Wong – you wouldn’t know him – and me. But, seriously, I’ll be fine. You should go say hello to your friend. I just freed him after his long captivity. You’re welcome.”

“What friend?”

“The silent, pointy one. Oh, there he is,” the human said, pointing behind Smokescreen.

The Autobot turned around to see the figure outlined at the end of the corridor.

Silent and pointy, all right.

Smokescreen placed his right leg between the human doctor and the enemy, pointing his arm cannon to the latter. “You freed Soundwave from the Phantom Zone?”

“I – yes?”

“Slag.”

“So, I take it that is not your friend,” the doctor said.

“Nope,” Smokescreen replied but didn’t go further than that. Decepticons didn’t exist anymore. Galvatron was who knew where looking for ways to atone for all he had done and, while some former Cons decided to become full Autobots, most of them had gone neutral. However, if there was something everyone agreed on, was that Soundwave’s fate was the best thing that could have happened to everyone – except to Soundwave himself, that is. Megatron’s most loyal follower would have never agreed to join in the efforts to rebuild their planet after his side’s defeat. He would try to start the whole thing all over again.

And on top of that, he was creepy as frag.

But there was no time to explain complex Cybertronian politics to someone who had never been there before. Instead, Smokescreen turned his cannon back into a hand and picked up the human doctor, holding him against his chest for safety, not caring in the least about his protests. More pressing matters stood in front of him. Like, literally. He wasn’t playing the impulsivity game anymore. He had to protect the human, warn everyone about Soundwave, and get out of there, in that order of priorities. All of which would be easier if the Decepticon wasn’t standing between them and the only working exit.

Smokescreen began to move backward, optics fixed on Soundwave as he went through his database for the Nemesis’ schematics, trying to find a safe place where to put the doctor. As he did so, he opened his commlink to contact HQ, finding out that the signal had been scrambled. Soundwave’s doing, no doubt. Said Decepticon also chose that moment to stop lingering and take a step toward them the one way he knew how: the most disturbing.

The Autobot, then, was faced with the need to rearrange his priorities. Now, he had to protect the human **and** get out of there so that he could warn everyone.

“My pride’s gonna hurt in the morning,” he mumbled and began to run. “Why couldn’t he be your average Vehicon?” Or maybe even two or three Vehicons. Then, he could have engaged while still being able to ensure the human’s safety. But against _Soundwave_? Yeah, no.

Yes, humans had been the ones to trap him in the Phantom Zone. But it had taken three of them who knew what they were doing plus the fragging Apex Armor, none of which were present at the moment.

“Slag!” he exclaimed again.

“Wait!” the doctor said. He climbed his way to Smokescreen’s shoulder to look behind them. “I found my cape!”

“Happy for you,” Smokescreen said. “You said it moved on its own. It can catch up with us.”

“Wait, I tell you!” the doctor insisted. As soon as he spoke, a loud clank echoed behind them.

Smokescreen stopped and turned around to see Soundwave on the floor struggling to get back up again. A red piece of cloth came up from between his feet and did, indeed, join the Autobot and the human, attaching itself to the doctor’s neck and somehow managing to look smug.

“See? I told you,” the doctor said.

“Yes, I see,” Smokescreen replied. “Thanks for that.” He evaluated his chances of jumping over Soundwave to reach the exit and decided against it. Such an action could end up with a hurt human. Therefore, unwilling to let the time the cape had gained for them go to waste, he ran away again. Right on time, since Soundwave was now crawling toward them, using those long appendages at the end of his servos to push himself forward. Still creepy, but slower, thank Primus.

“You don’t have to run, you know,” the doctor said.

“Yes, I do!” Smokescreen replied, even if he did adjust the way he held the doctor in his hands. “Believe me! You want Soundwave as far away from you as possible!”

Oh, good. The supplies closet he was looking for. Smokescreen slid inside and closed the door behind them. However, he took a peek into the corridor before he did. The coast was clear, which may or may not have been good news. How he hated uncertainty.

“This was too easy,” Smokescreen said. “Soundwave isn’t known for allowing himself to be defeated just like that.”

“What is he known for?” the doctor asked, jumping from Smokescreen’s shoulder to saunter down on a nearby shelf, his cape waving behind and around him. It looked kinda majestic. A shame Smokescreen wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it.

“War crimes, mostly. Did you just float down?”

“Yes, I did. Magic cape.”

“Right, magic cape.” The Autobot sighed. Then, he rubbed his face and began pacing. “Why did you have to free Soundwave? How did you even do it? How are you here? I have so many questions!”

The doctor raised his hands and waved them. “Calm down. Don’t panic!”

“I’m not panicking!” Smokescreen replied. “I am upset! That out there is one of the most dangerous and relentless Decepticons to ever exist, and I need to find a way to get us out of here and let everyone know about it while keeping the both of us in one piece! No pressure!”

The doctor frowned and scratched his beard. “Decepticon? I thought the war was over. That’s why I came to this universe.”

“It was! Until you brought him back! And I won’t even ask about the universe thing.”

For about a nanosecond, the doctor’s face showed disappointment. But he came back to his neutral expression. He also didn’t seem at all remorseful for what he had done. Perhaps he didn’t grasp the magnitude of the consequences. Smokescreen decided he would go with that interpretation; it was the most charitable one right now.

The doctor adjusted his cape around his neck. “In any case, you don’t have to call anyone. That’s what I meant when I told you to wait. I can send him back to where he was. It’s easy.”

“Easy? You need two groundbridges interfering with each other to open the door to the Phantom Zone, and I don’t have access that equipment right now.”

“Yes, you could try to get that. Or I could use a portal. Yes, a magic portal, before you ask.”

“Is that how you got him out?”

“And how I got all the way here.”

“I guess it’s an option,” Smokescreen conceded. “We have to find out where he is before we do anything, though.”

“Oh, I know that one! If I had been stuck in a phantom dimension for as long as he was, I would be starving.”

Smokescreen’s optics widened. The fact that Soundwave could barely move backed up Strange’s theory. Even Soundwave had to prioritize there. And yes, this made easy to figure out where he was bound go first. “The fuel tanks!”

The doctor spread out his hands and bowed his head. “Precisely.”

“Let’s go! We’ll ambush him, send him back, and end all of this in five minutes or less.”

“I’m willing to bet on ‘or less’,” the doctor said.

At that precise moment, however, the lights flickered and went off, leaving them in absolute darkness.

Smokescreen found the door and pushed it open. “Please, be on,” he murmured. But no luck. The lights outside were off as well, making it impossible for Smokescreen to see even right in front of his optics. “Dammit, Soundwave,” he mumbled. Who else could have done that?

A light came to be next to his feet, and then it rose all the way to the side of his head. The doctor hovered next to him and the light came from a ball he held on his hand. Furthermore, the magic cape again fluttering around him. It was a really cool sight.

“That’s going to give us away in a nanosec,” Smokescreen said. Having to be the responsible one sucked.

“We need to traverse the ship somehow.”

“I have the planes in my database and I know where we are. Sit on my shoulder and turn that off. I’ll get us there.”

The human raised an eyebrow but did as told, leaving them again in darkness.

Smokescreen ventilated long and hard and began to walk down the hall, now more painfully aware of the clanking noise coming from his footsteps. Besides, his feet kept bumping into things. Debris from all the battles fought there, he thought. He hoped.

“Heel to toe,” the doctor whispered. He also sounded louder than he should have. “That’ll help. In case you have heels and toes.”

Smokescreen pouted, glad that no one would be able to see it. “I know what they are,” he answered. However, he followed the doctor’s suggestion. Despite being a piece of advice designed for humans, it helped to reduce the noise. He focused on that and on navigating the Nemesis, trying to not pay attention to how sinister everything felt before he started to panic at the idea of being in the dark for so long his optical circuits would never work again.

_Frag it._ Too late. Now it was all he could think of.

“Everything okay?” the doctor whispered.

“Peachy,” Smokescreen replied.

“That’s Earth slang, which I’m guessing you picked up in the actual planet.”

“Yup. Was there for a while. Interesting times.”

“That explains a few things. You know, I think I didn’t get your name.”

“Smokescreen. And you’re the doctor… who?”

“Strange. That is my name. Stephen Strange.”

“Oh! Now I get it!”

Strange sighed but didn’t answer.

“So, what happened to your head?” Smokescreen continued. “How did you get hurt?”

The human scoffed. “Soundwave. At first, I thought he was eager to get out of there and didn’t notice when he pushed me down. I was going to complain already as soon as I saw him again, but…” He waved his hand and scoffed again.

“You were lucky he was too much in a hurry to stop and squish you. I’m surprised he didn’t, but you’re probably right and he’s that hungry.”

“Of course I’m right.”

Smokescreen restrained himself from saying, ‘Just as you were right about him being harmless when you let him out,’ and decided to consider it another rung on the ladder to reach actual maturity. Instead, he asked the big question that had been running around in his head for a while now. “What do you want Energon for? What do you plan to do with that spell?”

“It’s not Energon in specific what we seek but, as I said, the solidified blood of a non-organic deity. Energon was one of the easiest to get since there’s no need to make anyone bleed. Or at least, it was supposed to the idea.”

“You could have come to HQ and ask,” Smokescreen ventured, not sure if he should also add that there were still some Energon repositories on Earth. He decided against it. Strange was already on Cybertron. He’d let him get his handful after they had dealt with Soundwave.

He was about to pressure the doctor to answer his other question, but he was distracted by the sound of metal scraping against metal. As if someone as big as a Cybertronian dragged himself on the floor right ahead of them. Smokescreen felt the circuits on the back of his neck tingle. Part of him wanted to think that this meant Soundwave was too weak to even stand up, but the rest of him was aware the Decepticon was also a master of psychological warfare. Enough for him to let them pinpoint his location while in a vulnerable state inside a dark spaceship. A spaceship that he himself had made all dark, by the way. This situation called for the utmost caution.

“Let’s get this over with,” Strange said. He raised from Smokescreen’s shoulder and turned his ball of light on again.

It wasn’t only that he didn’t give Smokescreen the chance to tell him to wait. The Autobot’s optics had problems adjusting to the sudden brightness and made him unable to react on time. He thought he caught a glimpse of the Decepticon ahead of them turning around a corner, though, but soon the view got blocked by Strange’s cape. The human was now flying toward Soundwave at full speed.

“Don’t!” Smokescreen exclaimed, reaching out for the cape, but the thing evaded his hands. “It can be a trap!”

But the doctor didn’t listen. He disappeared around the corner leaving Smokescreen with no other option than to follow him.

Seconds later, both human and Autobot realized that the latter had been right. Strange began yelling the kind of profanity that always raised eyebrows back on Earth. The Autobot hurried and found the human stuck in some kind of net. Even his cape was stuck, and both tried to push themselves free to no avail. The more they struggled, the worst they made things for itself.

Yet, the doctor’s ball of light lingered. It floated over his head unaffected by the trap. It was then, and thanks to it, that Smokescreen realized that part of what he thought was debris were the corpses of fallen Decepticon footsoldiers, some of them badly mangled. It seemed like with everyone so preoccupied with Cybertron’s reconstruction, they forgot to send the cleaning crew this far into the Nemesis. What a terrible oversight. He’d make sure to fix it as soon as he returned to HQ.

Worse yet, Smokescreen’s nervousness made him imagine some of those wounds were recent. He shuddered and proceeded to ignore the corpses and look for positive aspects to the whole thing. He found two. One, with no Dark Energon around, they wouldn’t rise again and, two, there was no sign of Soundwave himself around. Even if that didn’t mean he couldn’t show up at any moment.

Smokescreen stood next to Strange with both arm cannons in display to examine the scene. The Decepticon had covered the entire hall with his net, making it impossible for them to keep moving forward.

“Okay, doc, time to use your magic and get out of there. We need to find another route.”

Strange grunted. “I need my hands to do magic, and they’re kind of… tied up at the moment.”

And both of them in an awkward position, Smokescreen noticed. One of said hands was between Stranger’s chest and the net while the other remained in an angle that must’ve been uncomfortable for the human.

“Listen,” Smokescreen continued. “We can’t run the risk of me getting stuck there as well. I need to find a way to deactivate that thing, whatever it is.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope. I’m not even sure I’ve seen one of those in my life before. But it’s probably some kind of magnet.”

“I don’t think so. The amount of metal I’m wearing doesn’t account for this, and my cape is made of cloth. It wouldn’t get stuck in a magnet.”

“Right…” Smokescreen replied. Sometimes, it was difficult to remember the specifics of organic life. There were so many. “So, any ideas?”

“Spiderweb.”

“I’m not that sure what that is, so you’ll have to walk me through this. How do I get you out of there?”

“Cut it around us.”

“All right. It’s a plan.” The question, though, was how. Smokescreen could change his cannon to a blade and attempt the deed, but what if he got stuck himself? Soundwave had planted this thing; the possibilities for it to be strong enough to hold a Cybertronian were high, and to shoot at the net was the complete opposite of an option. But there had to be a way. Looking around, he found the solution staring right at him.

Smokescreen turned his cannons back into hands and walked toward the wall. There, dug his fingers into the metal and pulled. And pulled. And pulled until he ripped off one of the panels. Then, he used its edge to cut the net. It worked, and the panel didn’t get stuck that much. All Smokescreen needed to do whenever it happened to free it again was a few firm shakes. Fine. It seemed he’d be able to do this.

Except that when he was halfway through, Soundwave came out from the next corner shooting at them.

“Should he be able to do that if he’s that low on Energon?” Stranger exclaimed.

“No!” Smokescreen replied as he now used the panel as a shield. He also had a theory about what could have happened. He hated having to think about it, but that didn’t change the fact that Soundwave was capable of. That and much worse. “He must have taken it from those corpses.”

Strange shifted his eyes as much as he could to catch a glimpse of them. “Shit,” he mumbled.

“Tell me about it,” Smokescreen said. By then, he was standing in front of Strange to cover him as well. He had to get the human out of there asap. Since he was about to be done with the net anyway, he decided to take the brutish approach and yank him out. Thus, he grabbed Strange by his midsection and pulled.

“Careful!” Strange yelled.

“I know what I’m doing!” lied Smokescreen.

He kept on pulling. Soundwave kept on shooting, and Strange kept on complaining. It seemed like a normal battlefield so far. It kind of made him feel nostalgic.

After a moment, right when he thought the net was about to give in, one of Soundwave’s shots passed so close to Smokescreen’s head that he lost balance. Trying to regain it, he slipped, then he spun, and by the time he could stand straight again, he had ripped the net from the walls, giving them now complete access to the rest of the hall. However, he had also ended up tangled in it – with Strange strapped to his chest.

“Oh, slag! You okay?”

“Believe it or not, I am. I’m facing forward, which means I can tell what's coming. And –” he wiggled his fingers and stretched out his arms “– I can use my hands again.”

Smokescreen grinned. “Nice.” He held the panel with one hand and turned the other to a cannon once more. “Let’s finish this for real this time!”

“On it!”

Letting Strange do his thing, Smokescreen launched forward, deflecting the enemy’s attack while shooting himself, forcing Soundwave to hide behind the corner. Oh, how he had missed this. Being reckless was so fun. He didn’t even remember why he stopped doing it.

Then, Soundwave came from his hiding place and stood in front of him with all those creepy vibes amped to the max, and all the reasons for Smokescreen to tone down that recklessness came back. Worse yet, Soundwave’s chest began shining green; he was about to launch a groundbridge. Or maybe a spacebridge. Who knew what he could do now that he was full of that stolen Energon, but Smokescreen didn’t want to find out.

Luckily, he didn’t have to. Strange opened one of those portals he talked about so much, an orange-looking groundbridge, and sent it forward. The portal engulfed Soundwave along with the one emerging from him, making them both disappear from the hall. And from the ship. And, with luck, from this dimension.

Smokescreen stood still and sighed. “That was fun.”

“I’d say,” Strange replied. Now that the mission was over, he went back to try to pull himself out of the net. Even his cape went back to pushing.

“You know, I think we’re going to need something to dissolve it,” Smokescreen said, trying not to sound as amused as he felt.

Strange accepted defeat, letting himself hang where he was. “Maybe.”

Smokescreen turned around and headed toward the exit. “Let’s go to HQ. If they don’t have anything to remove this thing from us, they’ll go find it.”

“What about the Energon?”

“We can give you some there too. I’m done with the cannibalizing,” Smokescreen said, trying very hard not to look at the corpses.

There was no reply to that, and Smokescreen distracted himself thinking on how he was going to explain the human stuck to his chest.

_Hey, guys! Something very funny happened on my way to check the alarm in the Nemesis…_

Yep, that sounded like the right way to start. He’d go with that.

“So, doctor, you never told me what you want the Energon for.”

“It’s complicated. It’ll take a while to explain.”

“Go ahead. we’re still facing some time together anyway.”

Strange sighed again, made a bad attempt at hiding a chuckle, and finally explained everything.

And yes, it was all too complicated, but Smokescreen felt more at ease once he found out.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from how I named the first draft file. I thought it was cool enough to stay. :P


End file.
